It Has Begun
by Maylana1129
Summary: Following the events of the Season 3 Finale, Brad and Kiera find themselves running from mechanized soldiers. Alec is out of Piron and powerless and the rest of our characters are moving on unsure paths. This story follows the relationship I set up between Brad and Kiera in 'The New Minutes' and acts as a sequel to that story. A/U


**A/N: This is the continuation of the story I ****wrote**** called 'The New Minutes' in which I explored the relationship between Brad and Kiera. It was more of the scenes we didn't see and stuck to canon pretty well. This story takes them right at the end of the Season 3 finale and explores what could happen next. Here's hoping we get a renewal announcement and find out for ourselves!**

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Kiera risked a glance in the rearview mirror as she was driving back to Vancouver. Brad was sitting next to her and Alec and Emily were in the back seat. It was Alec that she was looking at. It looked like he had lost a little weight, but that could have been from his time with the Freelancers. There were shadows under his eyes and even though he had dropped off and was leaning against the rear window, he didn't look relaxed in his sleep. She glanced up again and looked to see how Emily was doing. She was alert, waiting for the next threat that was aimed at her and Alec.

Kiera considered that of the four of them, only Alec wasn't a soldier of sorts. He wasn't really prepared for all of the things that had come his way the past few years. The car was quiet, everyone was lost in their own thoughts. They were on the way back to the city, back to the reality that she and Brad had been trying to avoid for the past few weeks. But, they had the beginnings of a plan, and they were all willing to do what it would take to make it happen.

Alec felt like he was running for his life. He knew heading back to his Sadtech lab probably wasn't the smartest idea, but he really didn't know where else to go. Kellogg's goons had been driving him away from Piron when all the lights had gone out. There were no lights anywhere, not from the buildings or the traffic lights. In the sudden darkness, it was no surprise that other cars had veered from their path and come straight at them. The goon in the driver's seat had swerved sharply to the right, throwing Alec up against the inside of the window where he was sitting. They were hit on the rear quarter panel of the car, knocking the goon in the backseat out cold. The driver was alone in the front, and he was dazed by the impact.

Alec had taken the chance to jump out of the car, and almost immediately tripped over things in the road. He didn't want to think about what those things were, so he righted himself and ran. He had kept moving for a few minutes before he realized that the darkness stretched out everywhere. The only lights he saw were from the headlights from the cars, most of them trapped in traffic or moving incredibly slowly.

He didn't know where Emily or Kiera was. Before his little conversation with Kellogg, he had assumed that he would see Kiera soon, but now he knew he had to see her right away. He had his phone, but she wasn't answering, so the only thing he could do was keep his head down and run.

Garza was checking out a little room in the Freelancers' base of operations. It seemed that some of the Freelancers had actually used this location as some sort of sleeping area. She was a little distance away from where they had come into the stronghold, and she liked more access to exits, but the bed was comfortable. She would have to explore some more, find the best routes to get out should shit go down.

She was relaxing for a moment, thinking back over how well their plan to replace the douche Alec with the less douchey Alec had gone. She was impressed that the little guy had it in him, especially if you considered how he basically had killed himself. Just as she decided to close her eyes, the lights went out, completely and suddenly. She jumped up, on alert. She didn't know what was happening, but she was prepared for anything.

Carlos was looking at the arrest paperwork for Mya Hartwell. He wasn't sure how he was going to manage to spring Emily from holding. She was currently locked up down stairs with the rest of the people rounded up today for various infractions. He knew he committed to a course of action when he agreed to help Kiera with her plan, but the idea that she recruited Travis, Garza and Lucas was pretty crazy. He wasn't sure who the good guys were anymore. He always thought that it was simpler than that, but seeing how Dillon had been turning the department into a private police force little by little made some of the things that Julian said make sense.

He stood up, and walked towards the elevator. If he was going to get Emily out somehow, it would have to be now, before she was transferred or questioned. He didn't even get to the elevator before the lights went out. People started shouting all around him. Carlos turned and started yelling out orders like his life depended on it. He could see nothing through the windows, no lights anywhere. He knew that shit was about to hit the fan.

He slipped away from the general chaos, after making sure that people were acting on his directions. He ran down the flight of stairs to the next floor. No one was going to care where one person went in all this chaos.

Kiera was running for all she was worth. Brad seemed very shaken by the appearance of the men in the mechanized battle suits. She wasn't sure where they were heading, the darkness of the city was disorientating. Brad seemed more sure of his direction than she was, so she followed him willingly.

They ran for what seemed like hours, but was probably closer to half an hour. Where ever Brad was taking her, it didn't seem to be a direct route. Suddenly she recognized the Sadtech lab. She wasn't sure if they could get in, with no power to open the doors.

Brad threw open the door, and Kiera only wondered at it for a moment before she found herself running down the stairs. There were low lights on in the lab. She and Brad were alert in an instant.

Kiera saw Alec at the same time he saw her. He ran forward, but he looked worse than he had on the rooftop.

"Does Kellogg have something to do with this?" he asked.

Kiera was surprised. "Kellogg?" she said. "Something to do with the guys in the battle suits?"

Alec looked just as bewildered as she did. "What? What battle suits?"

Brad had finished checking out the rest of the lab. "Mechanized Battle Units," he said. "MBUs for short."

Kiera and Alec looked at him. Kiera was still a little out of breath and a lot worried. Brad came over to her and put his hand on her arm, steadying her.

"We set off the beacon," he told Alec. "It's my fault. I just had to know if we changed the future."

"What happened?" Alec asked.

"At first nothing," Brad explained. "Then, after a few moments, the lights started to go out close to us. Then it was like throwing a stone in a pond, it just kind of spread out from there. A few seconds after the lights died, they came."

"They?" Alec asked.

"I didn't know that was what was going to happen. They didn't really explain it was a battle solution," Brad said. He walked a little away from Kiera and sat down on the lower steps.

Alec looked at Kiera. "The beacon was supposed to provide a point for others to come though to determine the danger to the timeline," she said. "If I understood Brad right, if he set off the beacon, it was a signal that the important events that caused his future were here, now."

"And you thought that the people that came through to answer the beacon would be what?" Alec asked. "Like the Freelancers? Someone that was easily dealt with?"

"I don't know," Kiera asked. "I don't think we really expected anyone to come through. I think we both believed that we had succeeded when we dealt with the other Alec. No one should have been there to answer."

Alec ran his hand through his hair in a nervous gesture. "It's not over. It's not fixed."

"We know that now," Brad said, frustrated.

Alec shook his head. "That's not what I mean," he explained. "Kellogg has something to do with the situation."

"You asked about that when we came in," Kiera said. "Why?"

"There's a reason I'm here," Alec began. "I was at Piron, and Kellogg threw me out. Had security escort me home. I managed to get away when the lights went out and we had an accident."

"What?" Kiera exclaimed. "How could he have done that? You're the head of Piron."

"Not anymore," Alec said, a bitter note in his voice. "It seems that the other me was becoming erratic. Kellogg convinced Jacqueline that the company was in danger and they had been slowly doing things, legal things, to take the company away from me, him."

Kiera was shocked. Maybe they hadn't changed anything. Brad hadn't heard of Alec when he had started to get his memory back, but he knew who Kellogg was. She wanted to scream and cry at the same time at the futility of trying to change the future for the better.

"The thing is," Alec continued. "He knew it was me. ME, not him. How did he know anything? There is no way any of us would have clued Kellogg in. And I don't think that Garza, Lucas or Travis would have either."

Kiera considered. "Maybe Lucas, but I don't see why. It sounds like he was working on this for awhile. We just came up with this plan in the last few hours."

"Hey," Alec said, suddenly realizing something. "Do you know where Emily is? Was she with you?"

Kiera waved her hand. "I'm sure she's safe considering things at this moment. She was arrested at the Halo demonstration. Carlos was going to get her out, but maybe she's better off where she is."

"How'd she get arrested?" Alec asked. "I thought she was going to keep out of it?"

"I don't know," Kiera admitted.

Brad stood up and came closer to them. "What are we going to do now?"

"I think you need to tell us more about these suits and what they are used for," Alec said.

"The MBUs are battle armor for the soldiers. They are equipped with all kinds of weapons. When things would get really hairy, they would be in the middle of it," he said. "If they are here, their mission isn't any kind of recon. They are here to terminate something or someone. Maybe more than one someone."

"I have the feeling that you were the recon," Alec said.

"Maybe," Brad admitted. "But my original mission didn't seem that way."

"What was your original mission?" Alec asked. "And didn't Kiera say that Kellogg gave it to you?"

Brad didn't answer right away. "He did," he said after a moment. "I was supposed to come here and kill you."

Alec stared at Brad, stunned. He turned to Kiera. "You knew about this?"

"I did," she said. "I found out after I found out that he was the one that killed the other me. She had gotten in the way when they came to the lab looking for you."

Alec sat on a stool that was nearby. "This day just gets better by the minute."

"Think about it though," Kiera said. "Kellogg seems to be a common thread behind a lot of the bad parts of today. I really want to talk to him."

"I want to talk to him with my fists," Brad said. "I wish he could know what he knows in the future. I'd love to get some straight answers out of him."

"That'd never happen," Alec said. "Regardless, what about these mechs? Are they going to tear up the city? What are they here to do? How do we stop them?"

"I don't know, I don't know, and I really don't know," Brad said. "I've never piloted one or gone up against one. I'm not sure what their weaknesses are. I can guess their mission though. They are here to do whatever it takes to complete the mission I failed in."

"Killing Alec?" Kiera asked. "Or changing the future?"

"Could be both," Brad admitted.


End file.
